I got my first lab in exchange for a set of golf clubs....best deal I ever made. Her full name was Smoky Brook of Elkmont...just love the smoke like mist over the Little River in Elkmont. She has been gone for eight years now and I now have two more. They do get close to you and they do become family. Smoky was cremated and while I am sure there is some gov't. regulation against it I did spread a few ashes over the river for which she was named. I still get that something in my eye when up there and see the evening mist roll in....